Friday, October 29, 2010

I love Halloween. And I'm really good at it. Actually, Amanda and I both are quite the professional Halloweeners. We've been known to serve some devilishly delicious and frightfully fantastic Halloween snacks (mummy cupcakes, witch finger cookies, lil smokie spiders, and eyeball dip to name a few), and we can rock a Halloween costume like no one's business... not to brag or anything, but Amanda won $200 and a guitar in a costume contest last year.

So, in the spirit of All Hallows Eve, here is a look at some past Halloween favorites.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

My dad is an expert at the grill. His specialties, always served on the "Blue Plate Special," include chicken under a brick, jerk salmon, and my personal favorite: super sauced up beef ribs, lovingly known as Gooey Ribs. They put pork ribs to shame.

Monday, October 25, 2010

I think that happiness comes in the form of cheese...melted and oozing between or within layers of dough. Grilled cheese sandwiches? Check! Quesadillas? Check! Empanadas!? Yes please!

A few months ago I experimented with empanadas for the first time… those unbelievably good pockets of dough filled with deliciousness and then baked or fried. I baked Puerto Rican style papa y queso empanadas inspired by the flaky-fried empanadillas I regularly devour (for only $3 during happy hour) at La Isla. Then, since I was on a roll, I also made crumbly Italian sausage, caramelized onion, and gorgonzola empanadas, inspired by a fantastic pizza creation (made by V) that was comprised of the same delicious goodies. That’s the beauty of empanadas… and grilled cheese sandwiches or quesadillas, for that matter…you can put anything in them, and as long as there’s a layer of rich gooey cheese melting in and around the other ingredients, your heart will be happy. Well, not literally…with all that cheese, your heart (and your heart doctor) will probably be un-happy, but we’ll let someone else’s blog deal with that.

Last week I was reminded of how wonderful, simple, and versatile empanadas are when my friend Amanda (not my sister, different Amanda) hosted a fall-themed girl’s night dinner in her new apartment. She made really good empanadas, but I’ll get to that in a second. First, a little about Amanda. She was the first friend I met in college, because our sisters were roommates. We went out together that first night in Seattle, and told people we were sisters. Then, when we met our separate roommates and made new friends in the dorms, we merged groups. We’ve been one giant girl-group ever since. We basically could have started our own sorority…if we were into that sort of thing. We weren’t into that sort of thing though, especially not Amanda—she’s a free spirit. So free, in fact, that last year, she and her boyfriend quit their jobs and flew to Southeast Asia, with open ended return tickets.

They travelled through Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia (and probably some other places I missed) for over a year. They celebrated Thanksgiving with a freshly butchered rooster on a permaculture farm deep in the jungles of Malaysia, and filled hand-sewn Christmas stockings with local treats in Indonesia. And now they’re back in Seattle, looking for jobs and settling into a new apartment and a ‘normal’ routine. I’m sure they won’t stick around for long though, so I’m gonna try to get lots of Amanda-time in…hopefully with a side of Southeast Asian cuisine!

…Or a plate of sautéed mushroom and goat cheese empanadas, which is what she served the other night. Like I said… you can put anything in empanadas. I’m not sure exactly what she threw in that mix… but I know that sautéed mushrooms, spinach, roasted garlic, and goat cheese were definitely in there. The beauty is that once you figure out a good dough recipe, the filling can be improvised. The possibilities are endless… she could have thrown some toasted nuts in there, or maybe taken it a completely different route and added caramelized onions and shredded Swiss to the mushrooms. I could sit here and write for hours about different empanada-filling possibilities, but instead, I think you should just try it for yourself.

If you’re feeling a little adventurous, I would suggest getting creative with empanadas. If you’re feeling a lot adventurous, perhaps a trip around Asia is more your style?

If you just want to make some good food and don’t want to think about it, however, you can make these.

For sofrito: In food processor, pulse onion, red pepper, cilantro, garlic, salt and black pepper until like a paste.

Heat oil over medium low in a large non-stick skillet or pot (I use a big wok). Add potatoes and sofrito, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Lightly mash with fork or back of spoon. Remove from heat and cool to room temp.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Divide dough into 16 pieces, and form each one into a disk. To fill, roll out 1 piece on a floured surface w/ rolling pin into a 3-4-inch round. Spoon a tablespoon of potato filling and a pinch of cheese (eyeball it) into center and fold dough in half. Press edges together to seal, then crimp with a fork. Transfer all filled empanadas to oiled baking sheet. Brush empanadas with egg wash and bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, serve warm.

Sift flour with salt into a large bowl and blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Beat together egg, water, and vinegar in a small bowl with a fork. Add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until just incorporated. Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and gather together, then knead gently with heel of your hand once or twice, just enough to bring dough together. Form dough into a flat rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour before filling.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

A few months ago I had the delicious pleasure of making this recipe for Fried Green Tomato BL(A)Ts to test as a potential Editor's Pick for a Food 52 contest... and I slathered this easy-peasy super tasty homemade mayonnaise all over it. I recommend you do the same.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Sometimes I make things that you probably should know about, but then I get side tracked or busy or end up baking a really awesome cake that I have to share, and then months down the road I look through my pictures and realize that I never told you about that other amazing thing I made. The one that was just as deserving of a blog post, but got tossed to the side and forgotten. Well, enough is enough!

It’s time to shine the spotlight on some of those long lost meals that have been hiding in the depths of my memory and my computer, yearning to get a full page blog post, or at best, an honorable mention. A lot of these have recipes I’ve typed up or jotted down on (on a random piece of mail or a napkin), some of them have stories that go along with them, and others—the lost-boys of my kitchen—these ones just have pictures. A lot of pictures. Um… maybe thousands of pictures. It’s high time I let them into the light, and share them with the world. One at a time. Starting with this salad that you really need to know about.

I recently had a salad with fennel and grapefuit, and it brought to my attention the fact that I came up with a way better fennel-grapefuit salad this summer, and I never told you about it. It’s really sad that I didn’t share this with you when I first created it, back in the height of summer, when avocados and grapefruit were at their finest (and cheapest). I randomly threw this salad together on a whim and a craving, and it was so good that I recreated it over and over for two weeks. I even remember calling Mel, fork in hand, and gushing about my new salad. What I don’t remember, however, is what exactly went in to this beauty!

I’ve searched through my emails, notebooks, and files trying to find where I had written everything down, but to no avail. I know the basics—mixed greens, creamy and nutty sliced avocado, tart and slightly bitter grapefruit segments, and paper thin slices of licorice-scented fennel bulb. All of those things are awesome together, but I remember that the dressing was really the cherry on top. That damn dressing that I can’t remember for the life of me.

I know I squeezed a lot of fresh grapefruit juice into it, and definitely some olive oil, salt, and pepper. It might have had a splash of cider vinegar, and maybe a finely diced shallot—my vinaigrette go-to. Now, if I really rack my brain, I mean really try to take myself back a few months ago to when I was tossing this salad together, I sort of recall Dijon mustard, apricot jam, and maybe even honey. I'm sure all of the above would be delicious. But...what was for sure in that dressing!?

Recipe incomplete and memory in shambles, it didn't matter...I couldn't sit on this any longer. You needed to know. And now you can experiment with my possible inclusions, and let me know what you come up with! While you’re testing it out, I’m going to search through my backlog of mouthwatering food pics, and find another hidden gem that I’ve regretfully failed to tell you about.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

When I woke up yesterday morning, I texted Amanda and asked if she was making scones, and if Evan and I could come over and eat them. She replied with a firm ‘No I am not, and no you may not.” After I sent another text with choice words and bullying, I was able to convince her to invite us over for Saturday morning scones. I love having a sister.

Amanda made delicious pumpkin scones, and we had them with pumpkin spice flavored coffee.